Interactive music installations gave the world’s most
prestigious advertising prize
Late last night, ABSOLUT and the ABSOLUT
MACHINES campaign were awarded the gold prize at the 55th International Cannes
Lions Advertising Festival. Of 2,700 entries in the Cyber Lions category,
ABSOLUT MACHINES is the only Swedish entry that was awarded gold.
In the digital
ABSOLUT MACHINES campaign, ABSOLUT explored what happens when technology meets
creativity in art, music and design. In collaboration with some of the world’s
most cutting-edge visionaries from the world of technology, two artificially
creative, interactive and music-making machines were created, with which the
visitors could interact via the web site absolutmachines.com.
– All of us who have been involved in this
project are very happy with the gold. Artificial intelligence is fascinating,
and ABSOLUT MACHINES has been a groundbreaking collaboration between art and
technology, where interactivity and creativity have been important corner
stones, says Karl-Johan Bogefors, Global Director, PR and Events at ABSOLUT.
Great Works was the main agency responsible
for the conceptual lead and Frankenstein was in charge of the art direction.
Jung was globally responsible for PR.
ABSOLUT MACHINES was launched in early
2008, aiming to explore the intersection between technology, creativity and
art. To facilitate this, ABSOLUT turned to two of the world’s leading
visionaries in technology – Sweden’s Teenage Engineering, as well as Dan
Paluska and Jeff Lieberman, both with a background from MIT in Boston. Each team was asked to create an artificially creative machine to answer the
question: Can machines be creative? Teenage Engineering created ABSOLUT CHOIR, a
robotic choir with 22 singing characters. Paluska and Lieberman matched this by
developing ABSOLUT QUARTET, an automated electro-mechanic sculpture, consisting
of a gigantic marimba played by balls shot from a robotic cannon, wine glasses
played by robotic fingers and an array of robotic percussive instruments.
The machines were exhibited in Stockholm and New York between January 31 and April 27, 2008. The visitors could
experience them live, and online users from around the world could interact
with the machines at absolutmachines.com and create music in real time. The
interaction with the machines was filmed and broadcast live on the Internet to
a global audience.
– ABSOLUT MACHINES is a perfect example of
how the Internet can be used for the creation of interactivity. The traditional
boundaries between the media channels are erased when they all work together,
says Ted Persson, creative director at Great Works and Cyber Lions jury member.
Videos of the machines have been viewed
more than 400,000 times at YouTube.com. The international press, such as
Science Magazine, Dazed & Confused and Tokion, has run stories on the
campaign. Creativity Online named ABSOLUT MACHINES the best global advertising
campaign in March, and in April, ABSOLUT MACHINES won a silver egg award in
Swedish advertising contest Guldägget.
– ABSOLUT have been working on various
forms of creativity for a long time. It is in the walls at ABSOLUT, and as a
creative agency, it is very exciting to work with a client that has so much
understanding for ideas and concepts that are different, says Ted Persson.
See also the absolutmachines.com web site.
For further information, please contact:
Karl-Johan Bogefors, Global Director, PR
and Events, V&S Absolut Spirits
Phone: +46 73 274 65 73, E-mail:
Ted Persson, Creative Director, Great Works
Phone: +46 70,992 26 32, E-mail:
Agencies and credits
Client:
Ulrika Lövdahl, Manager, Global Integrated
Projects
Karl-Johan Bogefors, Global Director, PR
and Events
Kristina Hagbard, Manager, International PR
Jesper Andreasson, Manager, Advertising
Patric Blixt, Director, Global New Media
Agencies:
Conceptual Lead: Great Works
Jung, Frankenstein, TBWA Paris/New York, Knock, Noise Marketing, Teenage Engineering, Jeff and Dan, Seeknear
Account Direction:
Magnus Wålsten
Planning:
Saher Sidhom, Mikael Zetterberg
Joe Konietzko (TBWA New York)
Project Management:
Charlotta Rydholm
Kaj Bouic
Christelle Delarue (TBWA Paris)
Cilla Winbladh (Frankenstein)
Production Management:
Linn Tornérhielm
Jocke Wissing
Creative Direction:
Ted Persson
Mathias Päres
Pontus Frankenstein (Frankenstein)
Art Direction:
Mathias Päres
Pontus Frankenstein (Frankenstein)
Design:
Pontus Frankenstein
Fredrik Karlsson
Photo:
Erik Hagman
Sesse Lind
Production:
Fredrik Karlsson
David Andersson
Ola Löfgren
Fredrik Hansson (Seeknear)
Fredrik Emanuelsson (Seeknear)
Joakim Zaar (Seeknear)
Technical Direction:
Micke Emtinger
Machine Creation:
Dan Paluska (Plebian Design)
Jeff Liebermann (Plebian Design)
Jesper Kouthoofd (Teenage Engineering)
David Eriksson (Teenage Engineering)
Björn Sjölén (Teenage Engineering)
Jens Rudberg (Teenage Engineering)
PR Consultants:
Jonas Sevenius (Jung)
Niklas Kahlmann (Jung)
Christian Åkerhielm (Jung)
Fredrik Skärheden (Jung)
Rosen Guggenheimer (Jung)
Henrik Hallberg (Jung)
Claes Boden (Jung)
Zoe Leonora Turnbull (Noise Marketing)
Joanna Garland (Noise Marketing)
Event Team:
Therese Engström (Knock)
Jonny Jansson (Knock)
Michael Stoll (Knock)